The 2020 Korea-Vietnam Copyright Forum, co-hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister Yang-woo Park, MCST) and the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and organized by the Korea Copyright Commission (Chairman Won-sun Lim), was held at 3pm on Thursday, November 12. The forum was held online through live streaming in both countries by limiting onsite attendance to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Discussing the status of the collective management system in both countries and cooperation plans, etc.

 The Korea-Vietnam Copyright Forum has been held since 2010 to promote mutual friendship and understanding through the exchange of copyright information between the two countries, as well as the development of the copyright system. At this year's forum held under the theme of "Amendment of the Copyright Act to improve the collective management system* of the two countries," ▲Pham Thanh Tung, Director of the International Cooperation Division at Vietnam's Copyright Office, presented an "overview of Vietnam's collective management system" and ▲Young-rok Lee, Head of Policy Research Office at the Korea Copyright Commission, spoke on "Korea's legal and institutional environment including collective copyright management." Afterward, copyright experts in both countries discussed "the status of trust service providers in Korea and Vietnam and cooperation plans."

  * Collective copyright management system: A system that entrusts rights to organizations established for the purpose of copyright management so that such organizations can collectively manage copyrights on behalf of individual rights holders.

Discussion of the collective management system tailored to the interactive online era

 This year, MCST is promoting the amendment of the Copyright Act to ensure transparency, efficiency, and rationality of the intensive copyright management system. Introduced in 1987, Korea’s intensive copyright management system has been expanded to 13 organizations covering music, literature, movies, and more. Among them, the collective management organizations handling music copyrights manage more than 30,000 members and 3 million songs, with the annual collection and distribution amounts each exceeding KRW 200 billion. These days, copyrighted works need to be used quickly in large quantities due to the nature of online video services. However, considering cases where the copyright holder is unknown or it is difficult to obtain permission for use by checking numerous copyright holders, allowing businesses to quickly obtain permission to use has also been discussed.

 Vietnam has created collective copyright management organizations since 2002, and six organizations are currently in operation. Those organizations are still focused on the music sector and have not many members, so they have shown a special interest in the collective copyright management system in Korea. For the protection of copyrights in the online era, Vietnam has also shown much attention to Korea's copyright protection system and experience.

 “This forum is a meaningful opportunity for both countries to discuss the direction of their copyright systems even in the limited circumstances due to COVID-19," said an MCST policy official. "I hope that Korea and Vietnam will amend their Copyright Act based on the opinions discussed today and the characteristics of the contactless and interactive era to contribute to the industrial development.